Kanzius Research Foundation updates community at forum

LAURA GATES

6:00 AM, Mar 31, 2012

6:44 PM, Apr 4, 2012

Mark Neidig, executive director of the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation, briefs a small group of supporters on the progress of a promising new treatment for cancer using radio waves, invented by the late John Kanzius. Laura Gates/ Banner Correspondent

BONITA SPRINGS - The small room was filled with people brought together by sorrow and united in hope: The sorrow of watching a loved one suffer through cancer treatments and the hope for a better way to conquer this cruel disease.

They listened eagerly as Mark Neidig reported on the progress of the Kanzius Non-invasive Radio Wave Cancer Treatment, inviting them to imagine a future where cancer is successfully treated without nasty side effects.

"Right now, we are very close to the point where we will take it to the FDA," said Neidig, executive director of the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation, during an informational forum at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point March 26, which drew about 25 local supporters.

This groundbreaking approach to cancer treatment combines the power of radio waves, antibodies and nanoparticles and has been showing success in tests with small animals, Neidig reported.

It was invented not by a scientist, but by a broadcasting engineer.

Not long after John Kanzius retired to Sanibel Island, he received a death sentence: a rare form of leukemia which proved unresponsive to more than 35 rounds of debilitating chemotherapy treatments. One night, sick and sleepless, his mind channeled on the power of radio waves.

With two of his wife's pie pans, an old ham radio and a hotdog on a metal probe, Kanzius began building a cancer-fighting machine in his Sanibel garage.

"We have hope because a guy had an idea," Neidig said of Kanzius, who helped establish the research foundation before he died in February 2009. "I find it inspiring somebody who got a terrible diagnosis would invest the time and energy that potentially would be lifesaving to so many people. He put every ounce of energy into changing the world."

Dr. Steven Curley of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center is leading a research team, including Dr. David Geller at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Dr. Dustin Kruse at the University of California-Davis.

Following success with small animals, the team has now received a larger, fifth-generation Kanzius radio transmission device to use on pigs -- and eventually humans, if given FDA approval, Neidig said.

The biomedical engineers who have taken up Kanzius' vision have published numerous articles in trade journals, demonstrating how the noninvasive radio wave approach destroys cancer cells without harming surrounding healthy cells, unlike chemotherapy, which destroys the good along with the bad. Researchers plan to start with pancreatic and liver cancer, two of the most deadly forms of the disease, Neidig said.

The procedure involves taking a nanoparticle of metal and coating it with an antibody attracted only to the cancer cells in the bloodstream. Once it is attached, a controlled radio wave is passed over the area, destroying cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed.

"Oncologists are doing a phenomenal job with what they've got, but we're going to present to them something that is so much better," Neidig said.

Now he's on a mission to raise funds for the research and documentation which will bring the treatment to clinical trials. Since the foundation's beginning in 2008, the nonprofit has collected nearly $5.5 million in donations, but Neidig estimates it will take another $10 million to see the mission through.

"It's about a loved one who has cancer; that's why people donate," Neidig said. "That's why people follow us, and that's why they tell the story, because they need hope."

Hope is what brought Diane Schroeder to the meeting Monday evening. She lost her husband to cancer three years ago, and her cousin is currently fighting stage four melanoma.

"This gives help and hope for something different other than pills which destroy your body," Schroeder said. "It was very uplifting. I'm very happy I came."

Joyce Forsythe has been following alternative cancer treatments for years, having successfully won the battle against non-Hodgkins lymphoma using a nutritional therapy regimen developed by Max Gerson, despite her oncologist's recommendation of four chemotherapy drugs. Her story was the subject of a 2011 episode of the "The Incurables."

While she benefited from a noninvasive therapy without side effects, the nutritional regimen was strict and time consuming. The Kanzius radio wave treatments seem to offer similar benefits without the rigorous juicing and coffee enema schedule she followed.

"What I see in this is it's easier," she said, reaching for her checkbook to make a donation. "I think it's going to fly. I really do."